syria-the drone wars

8/18/2019 Syria-The Drone Wars

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The Drone Wars

SYRIA - THE DRONE WARS

A Syrian Army UAV team prepares tolaunch a ‘hobby’ drone to fly a surveillance mission over rebel lines. Allsides have employed these cheap andeasy-to-use unmanned aerial vehiclesduring the five-year long conflict.

Almost every faction in the multi-sided Syrian civil war

appears to have a drone capability. The systems range from the US-built MQ-9 Reaper equipped with missiles and bombs, to mini quadcopters purchased online.

Tim Ripley reports.

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THE SYRIAN village appeared peaceful asthe drone rose over it, then the onboard

camera zoomed in to show deserted buildings. Ajihadi militia T-55 tank sped into the village andmore than a dozen Syrian militiamen jumpedfrom house windows, fleeing for their lives as itbecame apparent this was not a stage-managedPR event, but a real battle. The footage was farfrom the sanitised drone surveillance materialthat the Pentagon in Washington, or Ministryof Defence in London routinely publish.The video was shot from a small US$400 drone

purchased online. Such craft require minimaltraining to operate and generate high-definitionvideo of broadcast quality. Within minutes itcan be repackaged into propaganda videosor used to direct ‘Grad’ rockets onto targets.Since Syria descended into civil war and

anarchy five years ago it has become alaboratory for all manner of new and exoticweapons and technology. It is therefore nosurprise that many players in the conflicthave jumped at the chance to trial theirlatest unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones,as they are known in the popular media.

High Value StrikesThe most well-known drones operating overSyria are those used by the US and UK. Imagesof the infamous General Atomics MQ-1 Predator

and MQ-9 Reaper are commonplace in mediacoverage of the war. In the case of RAF dronestrikes, Prime Minister David Cameron takesa keen interest and personally announced thefirst UK Reaper attack in Syria last August.Reapers and Predators have been watch-

ing Syria from the start of the civil war in2011, operating out of Incirlik, Turkey andAli al Salem, Kuwait. At first, the US limiteddrone flights to the Syrian border for fearof the flying aircraft being shot down byPresident Bashar al-Assad’s air force. Thischanged in 2014 with the rise of Daesh andthe establishment of its so-called caliphate,centred on the eastern Syrian city of Raqqa.The USAF and Central Intelligence Agency

(CIA) then began sending Predators andReapers over Daesh-controlled territory tomonitor the progress of the jihadi mini-state. Inthe summer of 2014, Daesh pushed against thecapital of Iraqi Kurdistan, Erbil, prompting USPresident Barack Obama to authorise attacksagainst advancing jihadi columns. A few weekslater, US air strikes were extended into Syriaand the US drones began pursuing targetsacross the length and breadth of the caliphate.The search for Westerners held hostage

by Daesh became the focus of US droneoperations in early 2015. When the jihadisbegan beheading their captives and posting

gruesome videos online, the drones weresent to find and kill the murderers.To support this manhunt, the CIA and

highly secretive US Joint Special OperationsCommand (JSOC) set up an intelligencecentre at Erbil Airport; it became knownas the ‘Death Star’ after the infamousspace station in the Star Wars movies.The centre was modelled on those used in

Iraq and Afghanistan to hunt down and killsenior al Qaeda leaders and operatives. Itis based around huge computerised intel-ligence databases, satellite imagery feedsand plasma screens displaying live dronevideo. Joint Special Operations Commandstrike team leaders are based in the commandpost, ready to launch commando raids.Crucially, Death Star commanders are

delegated the authority to engage high-valuetargets with missiles from drones or crewedaircraft if the opportunity should present itself.The act of ‘taking the shot’ as it is known, hadto be delegated to senior JSOC officers inErbil. If the decision to attack had to be passedup the chain of command to politicians inWashington, vital minutes would be lost andfleeting targets would more than likely escape.The JSOC and CIA commanders at the

Erbil base are all experienced veterans of theconflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Somalia

Above: ‘Hobby’ drones are a cheap and effective toprovide Syrian armed groups with ‘eyes in the sky’enabling them to look behind enemy lines, including

spotting for artillery fire.Right: The Kremlin has used video footage fromRussian drones to support its claims that the Turk- ish Government is helping Daesh to export oil tofund its terrorist activities. Russian MOD

Above: The Nusra Front Jihadi group filmed its attack on a Syrian Army-held village in November 2015 from a small drone and then used the footage to create adramatic on-line propaganda film.

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and Yemen, which makes US politicaldecision-makers more comfortable aboutdelegating authority for drone strikes.Planning teams and drone operation experts

based in the Death Star advise the command-ers, but up to the moment when a target isactually engaged, US drones are flown fromremote operations centres in the continentalUS. Small launch and recovery elementsremain forward deployed at Incirlik and Ali alSalem to ‘put the birds in the air’ and replen-ish their fuel and weapons between missions.Over the past 18 months, the US

campaign against the Daesh leadershiphas gathered momentum and justbefore Christmas 2015 it claimed theinfamous British terrorist ‘Jihadi John’.In October 2014, the British Government

dispatched a contingent of RAF MQ-9Reapers to join their US counterparts at Ali

al Salem. They were initially restricted tokinetic engagements inside Iraq, but afterthe May 2015 general election, Cameroncommitted the Reapers and Special Forcesteams to the hunt for Daesh leaders in Syria.British Special Forces officers took up

posts alongside their RAF colleagues inthe Death Star after the government putthe names of several British-born jihadifighters on the joint UK-US targeting list,known as the Joint Effects List, or JEL. Thesedetails emerged in September 2015 whenCameron told Parliament that an RAFReaper had killed two British jihadis duringan attack on Raqqa a few weeks earlier.

Iran IntervenesAs a steadfast supporter of Assad and his latefather over several decades, Iran was amongthe first countries to offer military support to

the Damascus government when the civil warbroke out. The Iranian Revolutionary GuardsCorps (IRGC) Quds Force is the intelligenceand Special Forces arm of Tehran’s govern-ment and for more than 25 years it has beenresponsible for channelling aid to the anti-Israeliguerrilla groups in Lebanon, via Syria.It therefore came as no surprise when the

Quds Force, which controls many of Iran’sdrone units, began assisting Assad’s army in

its fight against the rebels. In 2012 the firstsightings of Iranian drones over Syria appearedin videos posted online by opposition groups.Iranian-built drones fill a major capability

gap in the Syrian Arab Army’s arsenal, whichlacks real-time air surveillance assets.Iran’s defence industry has developed several

types of UAV in various classes. Tehran claimsmuch of its technology has been harvestedfrom US drones that have crash-landed inside

Iran, including an RQ-170 Sentinel stealthdrone (also known as the ‘Beast of Kandahar’)in 2011, (see,Headlines, Feb 2012, p5).The most numerous Iranian drones

over Syria appear to be the Ababil-3and Mohajer tactical aircraft.According to leaked documents from the

British signals intelligence agency GCHQ, pub-lished on the US whistleblowing website TheIntercept, Iranian drones are based at Shayratin central Syria and fly surveillance missionsover rebel-held towns and cities. Remarkably,in March 2012 British intelligence forces brokethe encryption codes on the Iranian data links,enabling real-time monitoring of drone video

feeds. According to the leaked documents,the British shared video with the US NationalSecurity Agency and it was shown to PresidentObama, who asked if he could see more.A larger and more capable drone, the

Shahed-129 was spotted over easternDamascus in 2014, but it was almost two yearsbefore the Iranian state news agency confirmedthat the system had been used in action inSyria. It added the twist that the aircraft hadbeen fitted with Sadid-1 guided missiles.The agency published a video showing a

pair of the drones in action in Syria. Theywere shown flying from a desert air baseand launching missiles. Video imageryof a November 2015 strike was seen on ascreen inside a control station. The latitudeand longitude of the target was displayed,suggesting it was just south of Aleppo, ata time when Syrian troops were launchinga major offensive against rebel fighters.

SYRIA - UAVs

Above: The Iranian defence industry has produced more than 20 different types of UAV and is marketingthem aggressively at defence exhibitions around the world.Below: Battlefield experience over Syria was used to develop a modified version of the Iranian Mohajer,which was unveiled in 2014.

Above: Shahed-129 unmanned aerial vehicle is beingmass produced to give the Islamic Republic of Iran

Army a large fleet of armed drones. FARS News Agency Left: Shahed-129s armed with Sadid-1 guided missiles have been filmed flying over Syria on severaloccasions over the past six months. FARS News Agency Right: The RAF MQ-9 Reapers carried out their firstkinetic strike in Syria in August 2015 to kill two

UK-linked Daesh fighters. No images of the RAFReapers operating from their current base in Kuwaithave been released by the UK MOD. This examplewas photographed in Kandahar during the war in

Afghanistan. MOD Crown Copyright


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The Russians ArriveThe rebel alliance grew in strength during 2014and in the spring of 2015 Syrian Governmenttroops suffered a string of setbacks. InMoscow plans were laid to intervene to savePresident Assad’s regime. To build up adetailed picture of rebel deployments, Russian

ground forces dispatched new mini-drones toSyria. Soon the rebels had recovered wreck-age from these drones and filmed them.They included the delta-wing Eleron-3SV and

the Orlan 10, of more conventional design. Bothare catapult launched, the Eleron-3SV havingan endurance of two hours and the biggerOrlan-10 staying airborne for up to 16 hours.By September 2015 Moscow was ready

to strike and dozens of Antonov An-124transport aircraft began flying equipment intoLatakia, to set up a base for combat jets.Over the next six months, there were

regular sightings of Orlan-10s recon-noitring rebel strongholds across Syria.After a Turkish Air Force F-16C Fighting

Falcon shot down a Russian Su-24 Fencer inNovember, a war of words broke out betweenMoscow and Ankara. The Russian defenceministry held a series of briefings, reinforc-ing its claims that the Turks were helpingDaesh export oil. It produced high-quality

video of Turkish border crossings far fromSyrian Government-controlled territory,raising suspicions that the Russians havelarger and more capable drones in Syria.The mystery as to what these might be,

appeared to have been solved in February2016 when photographs emerged of a

Forpost drone taking off from Latakia. Theseaircraft were assembled in Russia fromkits supplied by Israel Aircraft Industries. Aversion of the Searcher II drone, Forpost hasa range of more than 186 miles (300km).It had already seen action in Eastern

Ukraine in 2014-15 and represents aquantum leap in capability comparedwith earlier Russian drones. It has abeyond-line-of-sight data link and can flyfar behind rebel lines looking for targets.The Russians have put a lot of effort into

targeting rebel leaders, combining videoimagery from drones with air strikes. Theirmost high-profile success was the targetingof rebel leader Mahran Alloush, in easternDamascus, on December 25, 2015. The levelof Moscow’s drone operations can be gaugedby comments from Lt Gen Sergei Rudskoy,of the Russian General Staff. In February2016 he said Russian unmanned aerialvehicles flew 70 sorties every day.

SYRIA - UAVs

Above: Iran’s Mohajer tactical drones have been extensively used in Syria since 2012 – rebels regularly filmthem flying over battle zones.

Internet DronesCLOSER TO ground level, a very different type

of drone war is under way in Syria, involv-

ing low-tech craft. Every day newspapers ,

television news and the internet carry reports

of new uses for drones and this trend has

reached the Middle East.

In Syria, internet-purchased ‘hobby’ drones

are prolific among rebel militia units, Daeshfighters and government brigades. These small

drones are probably bought by supporters liv-

ing outside Syria and shipped into the country

by covert means, via friendly third countries.

The most high-profile users of hobby drones

are Daesh and al Nusra Front (the Syrian

branch of al Qaeda) propaganda teams. Daesh

has generated several ‘battlefield reports’

featuring drone footage, including images of

suicide attacks and, in one case, a Western

hostage, John Cantlie, on a tour of a Syrian

battlefield. The incident recounted at the

beginning of this article was produced by an

al Nusra Front battlefield news team and dem-

onstrates how technically proficient its drone

operators are.The Syrian military uses hobby drones in

more conventional reconnaissance roles.

In January 2016, the Syrian Army’s Desert

Hawks Brigade showed off its new mini-

drones during an attack on a mountain-top

rebel base. The brigade commander had the

system’s video monitor in his command tent

and was watching the battle unfold.

On the frontline near Aleppo, the Syrian

Army’s senior field commander, Col Suheil

Hassan, has his own hobby drone unit. The

video feed from the drone is displayed on

a tablet, which Col Hassan watches as he

directs his troops from frontline observation

posts.

The overriding lesson from the Syrianconflict is that drones are no longer the sole

preserve of the US and its allies. Craft of all

shapes and sizes, including some armed with

precision-guided missiles, are now available

to offi cial armed forces and militia groups . afm

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